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Amazon Primes Seattle for Jolt of Development; Can the City Keep Up?

By building a new headquarters in downtown Seattle, Amazon is attracting residential developers, new restaurants, and other tech companies to a rapidly transforming neighborhood. Can the city keep up with the demand for infrastructure and amenities?

"Here, in his company’s hometown, [Amazon’s founder and chief executive Jeffrey P.] Bezos has put his chips on the idea of Seattle and urban America itself," write Kirk Johnson and Nick Wingfield. "The result in South Lake Union, previously a low-rise, low-rent warehouse district with ties to the city’s gritty maritime past, is a flood of cash, construction detours and dust. Increases to the city’s tax base aside, some people are apprehensive about whether the growth could outstrip the city’s ability to keep up."

“I think they’ve single-handedly defined a whole region,” said Bryan Trussel, the chief executive of Glympse, an Internet start-up with offices next to Amazon. “Now everyone wants to be there.”